Install GUI on debian 7 wheezy

This article will show you how to install GUI (Graphical User Interface) of your choice (gnome, kde, tde, Cinnamon, mate, enlightenment, xfce, or lxde) on debian 7. The two biggest players in the game are Gnome and KDE, but there are also many smaller GUIs, like Xfce and LXDE that have just as much to offer.

Download Debian 7 wheezy

For leaner and better control of what you install on your machine, I highly recommend you to download and install debian minimal CD or netinst.

When you are at “Software selection” screen, *unselect* all the option.

If you already have debian installed and you want to find out what your debian version is, you can use this command

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$cat/etc/debian_version

Gnome

GNU Object Model Environment (Gnome) is a desktop environment and graphical user interface that runs on top of a computer operating system, user-friendly desktop for Unix operating systems, based entirely on free software. You will need to install aptitude and tasksel before install gnome

Aptitude is an Ncurses based FrontEnd to Apt, the debian package manager.

Tasksel is a tool that installs multiple related packages as a co-ordinated “task” onto your system.

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# apt-get install aptitude tasksel

Install gnome on debian

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# tasksel install gnome-desktop --new-install

KDE

K Desktop Environment (KDE) is a free desktop environment and development platform built with Trolltech’s Qt toolkit. It runs on most Unix and Unix-like systems, such as Linux, BSD and Solaris.

TDE

TDE (Trinity Desktop Environment) is a Linux desktop environment. TDE is a continuation of the KDE 3 series which look and feel the same with KDE 3.5 but it’s packages aren’t interchangeable with KDE. The first time you start TDE, Kpersonalizer will help you to configure the basic setup of Trinity desktop.

To install TDE on Debian 7 wheezy, you will need to add Trinity Repository to your system sources.list file

Compiz

Compiz is truly one of the original compositing window managers for the X Window System which is capable to make use of OpenGL-acceleration. The integration enables it to run compositing effects in window management, for example a minimization effect and a cube workspace. Compiz conforms to the ICCCM standard together with replacement for the main Metacity in GNOME or KWin in KDE.

You can configure Compiz via CCSM utility. located in System -> Preferences -> CompizConfig

Cinnamon

Cinnamon is a Linux desktop which provides advanced innovative features and a traditional user experience. The desktop layout is similar to Gnome 2. The underlying technology is forked from Gnome Shell. The emphasis is put on making users feel at home and providing them with an easy to use and comfortable desktop experience.Cinnamon has rich visual effects enabled by new graphical technologies.

MATE

The MATE Desktop Environment, a non-intuitive and unattractive desktop for users, using traditional computing desktop metaphor. MATE is based on old Gnome 2, which is stable, tried and true. Because of it has been around for so much longer, tools have been developed for it which makes Gnome 2 highly compatible with most software and also highly configurable (for example, you can run Compiz on it). Add one of MATE repositories to your source.list

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# nano /etc/apt/sources.list

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# main repository

deb http://repo.mate-desktop.org/debian wheezy main

# mirrors

deb http://packages.mate-desktop.org/repo/debian wheezy main

deb http://mirror1.mate-desktop.org/debian wheezy main

Install MATE on debian

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# apt-get update

# apt-get install mate-archive-keyring

# apt-get update

You will need to install X Windows System before install MATE

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# apt-get install lightdm

You can choose to o install MATE with three options To installs MATE base packages

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# apt-get install mate-core

To install mate-core and more extras

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# apt-get install mate-desktop-environment

Or to install mate-core + mate-desktop-environment and even more extras.

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# apt-get install mate-desktop-environment-extra

Enlightenment

Enlightenment is not only one desktop environment for Linux, but it has an entirely libraries to assist you to produce gorgeous end user interfaces together with a lesser amount of computer resource as compared to doing it the particular traditional way, it also helping together with classic toolkits, not forgetting an old-fashioned window manager. We are going to install Enlightenment from debian testing repository, so we have to add the testing repository to the sources.list file

I’m going to use LightDM instead of Gnome GDM3 desktop manager. If you have installed gdm3, remove it and install lightdm.

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# service gdm3 stop

# apt-get remove gdm3

# apt-get install lightdm

# service lightdm start

Now we can install Enlightenment with this command

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# apt-get update

# apt-get install e17

To start Enlightenment, you can use this command, or Enlightenment should starts automatically after you do reboot

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# exec enlightenment_start

XFCE

Xfce is a lightweight desktop environment for UNIX-like operating systems. It aims to be fast and low on system resources, while still being visually appealing and user friendly. To install Xfce on debian 7 wheezy

To start xfce Once the xfce installation is done, reboot your sytem, login with your username and password, then type

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$startx

or

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$startxfce4

To start xfce automatically when you login to tty1 edit .bashrc in your user directory

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$cd/home/yourusername

$nano.bashrc

add these code to the end of the .bashrc file

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if["$(tty)"="/dev/tty1"-o"$(tty)"="/dev/vc/1"];then

startxfce4

fi

LXDE

The LXDE or “Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment” is an extremely fast-performing and energy-saving desktop environment. LXDE uses less CPU and less RAM than other environments. It is especially designed for cloud computers with low hardware specifications, such as netbooks, mobile devices (e.g. MIDs) or older computers. LXDE can be installed on many Linux distributions including Debian, Fedora, OpenSUSE and Ubuntu. minimum set of elements

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# apt-get install lxde-core

complete set of elements

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# apt-get install lxde

complete Debian LXDE desktop environment

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# apt-get install task-lxde-desktop

FluxBox

Fluxbox is a extremely minimalistic and fast window manager for Linux and Unix systems. Based on the Blackbox 0.61.1 code, FluxBox uses very little resources and memory compare to KDE or Gnome which is great for older or low-powered machines. To install FluxBox on debian 7 wheezy. You will need to install X Windows System before FluxBox

Openbox

Similar to Xfce, LXDE, and Fluxbox, Openbox is very light weight and minimal window manger (not a desktop environment) for Debian or any Linux and Unix system. Openbox is developed from Blackbox 0.61.1 source code. Since Openbox is light weight, it uses very little resources yet very functional.

Hi, thanks for the information. I seem to get an error when installing TDE. After following all of your instruction, I get to a halt with the last command “sudo apt-get install desktop-base-trinity kde-trinity.” The result reads:

I think I’m asking you the wrong questions. Scratch what I’ve written above. I’ve added the mirrors to my source list and typed the command ” apt-key adv –keyserver keyserver.quickbuild.pearsoncomputing. net –recv-keys 2B8638D0″ This is what I get at the end:

Gnome 3 is ‘user-friendly’ while MATE is ‘unintuitive and unattractive’? They look pretty much the same, and guh-nome 3 is so locked down that you can barely do anything.

Also, the installer these days has an ‘advanced’ menu entry that lets you select a few different desktops (including KDE and XFCE), so you don’t have to worry about getting config files right to ensure your X session starts.

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